Abraham Kuyper, who served as prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905, was also a journalist and theologian. Kuyper wrote expansively on public theology in an effort to engage culture through the lens of a Christian worldview, covering topics such as common grace, the kingship of Christ, and the roles of the church and family. In collaboration with the Abraham Kuyper Translation Society, the Acton Institute and Lexham Press have teamed together to publish the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology, a collection of Kuyper’s theological writings translated in English for the first time. On Islam, is the latest in this 12-volume series of translated works by Kuyper, detailing Kuyper’s observations while traveling in the Mediterranean.
“This latest book is a combination of travelogue, historical analysis, and reflections on the significant role Islam was playing at the turn of the 20th century,” writes Chris Meehan. “By encountering all that he did, Kuyper stepped out of his life in Europe to get a wider view in which he saw and experienced cultures and religions at work helping to shape world events — for good and for bad.”
Meehan describes how Kuyper was able to observe the Eastern cultures with humility and appreciation, writing that while he was “encountering Islam for the first time, Kuyper had to confront his own stereotypes and the prejudices he held regarding the religion.”
Read Meehan’s full book review, Abraham Kuyper on Islam and Christianity.
Featured image: (By Derzsi Elekes Andor (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons)
